Thetownend.com

You are my favourite manager EVER! You are simply brilliant!

You are a LEGEND and we salute you!

He needs to get us out of this division.

The best thing is that he's quite clearly doing something right. At the start people liked throwing rumours of discontent... Anyone who has stepped out of line or not shown the level expected have been/or is in the process of being removed.

Could we finally have a squad where the majority would metaphorically die for the club? If so, it's been a while.

Right now its the inverse of last year.

I just love him, his passion, enthusiasm, everything he does or says is spit on at the moment, couldn't have asked for much more, long way to go in the league but I'd be very surprised if we don't go up in the autos.

In a short space of time he has transformed this club and is idolised by the fans. We are so lucky to have him.

I am a little tipsy and feel the need to declare my love for PdC rather loudly to everybody on the Reeperbahn

I would also like to add that I love Paolo. A lot.

How long until he is classed as a club legend?

you just have to love the man his passion and commitment is unsurpassed and best of all he is ours

proud to be a town fan tonight after years of hurt and turmoil we are at the beginning of something great with this man

He is already mate

Promotion.

But heck I'd like him more if he won us the JPT.

Yep very proud indeed, I hope he stays here a very long time.

West Ham in the 4th round anyone?

Nope not for me, I'd imagine we would HAVE to give West Ham a few more tickets than we gave Wigan and If it was at their place then home demand for tickets would be huge and we wouldnt get any where near enough!

I think we have a good enough team to see of any League one and Championship teams minus the few on form top boys. For me it's an easy route to the final over a big name clash in the 4th round!

An easy route to the final?

It's simple as far as Di Canio is concerned. The bloke is what this club has been crying out for for years. When Malpas went we needed a man to come in change the club's mentality and approach. That man was Holloway, but our board looked elsewhere and in came Wilson. A rather run of the mill, uninspiring man who did know how to do things on the pitch.

Now Danny did alright, the results on the pitch managed to cover the cracks, but W'ilson hadn't changed the mentality of the player or the fan.  And that's what Macari did in the 80's and that is exactly what Di Canio has done this year.

It's a mentality shift that I think has affected the average fan, and in truth our average player, for the better.

I love Di Canio as a manager as I haven't loved a manager for years.

I am having some conflicted feelings about him.

You put that really well, I never realised or even thought of it as a mentality shift before, but you're right - it's kind of woken us up as fans. I saw fans tonight who hadn't been in years, who were waxing lyrical about the game.

My mate's brother, an Arsenal "fan", who's last Swindon game was Wembley (and doesn't actually support us) said Wembley only made him have no desire to watch us again, but today's game was great to watch and affected him enough that he'd like to be part of what's happening.

I adore Paolo. He has the makings of a great and a legend. He says the right things, he does the right things and he gets the team playing like they'd rip their hearts out to succeed.

If he is not one of the best and most sought after managers in Europe within the decade, I'll be very surprised.

It's okay. Just hug it out with him.

I declared my love for Swindon rather loudly on the Reeperbahn some time in 1998.  (It was at about 2am, and about 8 or 9 hours after I'd left a St Pauli game.)  If you listen carefully, you may still be able to hear the echo.

Not those kind of feelings.

also:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IxrskrY9gs

He'll need to take us up first...preferably twice, like Macari did.

Spot on Janaage.

I read sonics status on facebook, he wasnt keen on pdc, but i reckon hes been turned.

I love Paolo more than my wife. (well tonight anyway!)

Is it too early to be considering a Paolo tattoo?

only if you spell it right :)

Just watched the highlights, I love him even more.

We can't underestimate how big an acheivement that was today, a great team performance and let's get a good draw in the cup tomorrow.

I predict Notts County away :-(

Just try to separate the important stuff from the entertainment. PDC is everything we need from afootball point of view.

Put it this way, as a bloke I'm sure Lenny Henry is up there with the best, however as a comedian, I wouldn't piss on him if he was on fire. I find a lot of diseases funnier than him. 

Sonics with us... It's a disclaimer just in case PDC ever does something a little bit fascisty :)

... and if PDC ever did that, we'd all be outraged.

go to the hesburger, they'll listen to you there!

I heard in the pub today that Paolo said if we get promoted he will get a Swindon tattoo.

Thats why I love him.

The 2011-12 season DVD is gonna have to be a boxset at this rate, including a PDC disc just for his antics and interviews!

We have at least stopped scoring goal of the season every week, so we'll only need the one disk for that.

 :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick: i was thinking the same

With subtitles I hope!

Amen. I love the Hesburger as much as I love di Canio...

I have a Celtic fan at my workplace - they love di Canio.
Needless to say my tales of Paolos antics are keeping him laughing. He loved the Steve Evans one in particular

we should bring the franchise over, we could be the 1st club with a hesburger......

Yep I agree, hes almost a legend already but we havent actually achieved anything yet, Macari is my all time favourite manager and it will take 2 promotions to get close to him, but add in a JPT win at Wembley and a promotion, no a Championship, and you will be getting close Paolo!

Have to say that that I agree whole heartedly with those that say STFC needed the PDC injection to change culture and at the same time have to say the stars were aligned at STFC to allow him to have the free reign he has had with the club.

It is rare that a manager,  chairman and supporters identify what is needed to put things right and, more importantly, work to achieve this despite the niggly set backs that arise as a result. The stars were aligned for this appointment to work

Credit to JW for being brave in the face of a few voices of discontent over PDC's appointment despite losing sponsors and offloading newly signed players.  It's very easy to appoint a manager and say you believe he is the right person for the job but more difficult to allow him to dictate how the team is managed, especially when a major investment player starts to rock the boat - many chairman would have papered over the cracks and told PDC to get on with it.  Not JW, stood by his man and has continued to do so through out.

Credit to the fans, even those who rejected PDC due to their political beliefs.  We all have our reason for supporting our club and to sacrifice that for something we believe in outside of football is a tough call and not one I would like to have to make.  However i think it is clear that despite PDC's political views he has not brought those to the game but, like a seasoned politician, he has won the hearts and minds of many a supporter whose heart and mind had been destroyed from years of emotional and financial turmoil at the hands of former incompetent owners.

Credit to PDC.  Passion, honesty and structure.  Three things this club has lacked.  Never in the 43 years of supporting this club have I felt such a strong bond to the ethos being instilled here.  I have no doubt that as a player it cannot be easy trying to meet the demands of a manager like PDC but then I think that's how it should be.  Your place in the starting 11 shouldn't be decided on how much you earn or what deal your agent has put in place to guarantee your start.  It should be all about how you apply yourself to the objectives of the team during training.  Think you can relax during training? have the day off on saturday instead.  Paolo will tell you, this is about Swindon the team not the individual glory seeker.

Credit to good fortune... everything was in place to allow Paolo to have complete control and rebuild from the bottom up. It's doubtful another manager will get his opportunity again, not just here but anywhere. We were a club that was at the bottom of the barrel. We needed cultural change and we needed a manager who was strong enough to drive that and a chairman who was prepared to accept and promote it regardless of the risk - we got that and long may it continue.

If fans ever needed an excuse to come back and watch the town week in week out then Saturday was it.  If that didn't reignite the flame then I don't know what will.

TLDR

Brilliant post Mac, couldn't agree more.

Can't believe how lucky we are to have Paolo, a risky decision by Wray et al at the time but boy is it paying off so far.

We have to enjoy him as long as we have him, which will hopefully be for a good while yet.